Moral development at the United States Naval Academy: the midshipman's perspective

Download
Author
Clark, Timothy M.
Date
2004-09Advisor
Pierce, Albert C.
French, Dana P.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study examined midshipmen perceptions of moral development at the Naval Academy. Six focus groups comprising a total of 45 first-class midshipmen were conducted to discover aspects of the Naval Academy experience that have positive, neutral and negative impacts on midshipmen's moral development. Focus group midshipmen reported that good personal examples, open-forum discussions of ethical case studies, assuming midshipmen leadership responsibilities and participation in sports have a positive impact on their moral development. Parts of the Naval Academy experience that had a neutral impact on their moral development included some aspects of the core ethics course, the behavior of some of their peers, and the "directed development" approach they perceived in many of the Academy programs. Focus group midshipmen also believed that there were too many ethics and character programs, and that they were too repetitious and too routine to have more than a neutral impact on their moral development. Finally, focus group midshipmen cited bad example by some officers, the Bancroft Hall culture, and weaknesses in the Honor System as having a negative impact on their moral development. This study concluded with several recommendations from the midshipmen and researcher to improve moral development efforts at the Naval Academy.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
USNA Classroom Utilization Study - Final Report - Analysis of Issues Affecting Classroom Utilization at the United States Naval Academy
Coffen, Keith; Hansen, John; Phillips, Sara; Wingfield, Dean (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2010-09-03);EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Demand on Naval Academy facilities has increased due to sustained growth in the Academy’s academic programs in new areas such as cyber studies, language and cultural studies, and increased emphasis on ... -
A quantitative analysis of the impact of the Summer Training Program on midshipmen service selection at the United States Naval Academy
William, Shawn T. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2005-06);This thesis examined the effect of the Summer Training Program on the vocational development of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. Data from 355 First Class midshipmen were analyzed to examine the impact of ... -
The effect of the summer training program on midshipmen career choice at the United States Naval Academy
Casals, Rodolfo (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2004-03);The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the Summer Training Program (STP) on vocational development of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy. To test this a sample of 615 first-class midshipmen ...